Earlier today, we reported that DeepSeek’s next-generation large language model, R2, was rumored to launch later this month, based on speculation circulating in Chinese tech circles and even hinted at by DeepSeek’s own AI.
The model, in response to user queries, suggested a release window between August 15 and 30. But just hours after this surfaced, a source close to DeepSeek has categorically denied the claim, confirming that there are no plans to launch DeepSeek-R2 in August.
What’s Slowing Down DeepSeek-R2?
This isn’t the first time DeepSeek’s roadmap has stirred confusion. Similar rumors made the rounds earlier this year with an alleged March 17 release, which also turned out to be false. Despite the public anticipation, the company has yet to officially confirm a release date or even disclose key technical specifications of the R2 model.
That hasn’t stopped speculation. DeepSeek-R2 is widely expected to be a major leap forward, improving multilingual reasoning and code generation, and rivaling top-tier models like GPT-4/5. But progress has reportedly hit a wall. According to insiders cited by The Information in June, DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng remains dissatisfied with the model’s performance, even after months of intense development.
The delay isn’t just a matter of refinement; it may also reflect infrastructure concerns. DeepSeek has been operating under limited compute availability, especially after Nvidia’s H20 chips were banned from export to China. Sources suggest the company fears launching R2 too soon could backfire if usage spikes overwhelm its systems. It’s a real concern in the AI race, where performance alone isn’t enough; scalability matters too.
To address the shortfall, DeepSeek is believed to be training R2 on Huawei’s Ascend 910B chips. Huawei’s compute cluster reportedly delivers 512 PFLOPS of FP16 performance at 82% utilization, equivalent to about 91% of the performance of Nvidia’s A100 cluster. While this shows promise, it’s unclear whether the setup can meet the scale required for a major model rollout.
Meanwhile, the chip supply picture may be improving. Just days ago, Nvidia and AMD agreed to a revenue-sharing deal with the US government, allowing them to continue selling AI chips in China in exchange for handing over 15% of their China revenue. The agreement may eventually ease supply constraints for companies like DeepSeek. However, any immediate benefit remains uncertain, as Chinese authorities have reportedly discouraged domestic firms from using Nvidia’s H20 chips.
So while DeepSeek’s own model might have teased an imminent release, the company’s actual position appears far more cautious. R2 is real. It’s under active testing. But it’s not ready for prime time. And in a hyper-competitive AI landscape, DeepSeek needs more than a good model; it needs one that’s stable, scalable, and market-ready.
Until then, the spotlight stays on DeepSeek, as the world waits to see if R2 can live up to the growing expectations.
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(Via)
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